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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29832978">I. A.Chase &amp; T.Grace</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafiest_groves/pseuds/leafiest_groves'>leafiest_groves</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hear my name and remember [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians &amp; Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Ballet, Annabeth Chase &amp; Thalia Grace Friendship, Annabeth and Percy are ✨ traumatised ✨ now, Awkward Conversations, Ballet, Blood and Injury, Breakups, Child Murder, Child Neglect, Death Threats, Diary/Journal, Discussion of Miscarriage (very minor and not detailed/graphic), Domestic Fluff, Drinking, Drinking to Cope, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, False Memories, Female Jason Grace, Hallucinations, Hazel go off baby, Horror, Jen ily but wtf, Manipulative Relationship, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Memory Magic, Memory Related, Mild Language, Miscarriage, Multi, Multiple Selves, Murder, Murder Mystery, Or Is It?, Other, Panic Attacks, Past Lives, Past Relationship(s), Pining, Post-Divorce, Post-it Notes, Psychological Horror, Rachel dies, Reference to a prior miscarriage, Repressed Memories, Self-Harm, Slow Burn, So Married, Spelunking, Stalking, THALIA YOU'RE NOT SLICK SIS, Unhappy marriages, as usual, everyone is sus of each other, hazel science queen, love it, maaaan y'all are gonna hate me sm but yk what I die with 0 regrets, now if only we knew what happened to Thalia's boy.., she gave us a clue by dying!, sorry Rachel :(, thanks Rachel :), thanks thalia, threw y'all a bone with some alternate timeline valgrace fluff, what a lovely word spelunking is, which is y u m m y, yell all u want queen I'll sit here and stan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 21:21:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,412</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29832978</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafiest_groves/pseuds/leafiest_groves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>.<br/>.</p><p>Nobody quite remembers what happened to the poor boy.</p><p>It really was too soon..he was too young...but whatever happened to Thalia's boy?</p><p>After all this time, a lead pops up to help solve the case, and Annabeth, determined to find out the truth and reduce Thalia's grief, jumps on the opportunity.</p><p>Poor girl.</p><p>Annabeth should've tested the waters first.</p><p>She fell in head-first.</p><p>.<br/>.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annabeth Chase &amp; Jason Grace, Annabeth Chase &amp; Thalia Grace, Apollo &amp; Diana (Percy Jackson), Jason Grace &amp; Thalia Grace, Jason Grace/Leo Valdez, Jason Grace/Percy Jackson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>hear my name and remember [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/parker_kingofbees/gifts">parker_kingofbees</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScytheMarieAntoinette/gifts">ScytheMarieAntoinette</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Apollo throws the box at Rachel’s door before he leaves. She opens it in shock the next morning.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her hands shake when she goes through the pages, realising in horror the secrets and truths written among them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>September 17th, Diana</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"...I want to run when I think of the empty grave, when I realise that my brother and Piper were not the sole survivors of the incident. Had I gone mad? He was dripping with blood from the midsection, but it seemed like everyone's anger had evaporated. Thalia smiled, and he smiled at me. "It's nice to meet you Diana." he'd grinned. I screamed."</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rachel’s hands tremble harder when the book seems to open to this page on it’s own. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s a mess of a diary, with pictures and drawings and writing all sprawled into a messy book, and her stomach feels sick when she sees blood at the tips of some dog-eared pages.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Diana</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she thinks. Apollo’s sister? Wasn’t she in a psych ward right now after having strange episodes? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rachel wonders what’s going on. Apollo had only shown his face to her after weeks of being missing from her life entirely. She remembers the instruction she’d been given by him:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If anything happens, tell Annabeth.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It chafes Rachel a little, but this is all so </span>
  <em>
    <span>weird.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The minute Rachel hangs up the phone with Annabeth, she goes to look at the page again, horrified at the contents. </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Empty graves? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Survivors? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hadn’t Jason just been hospitalised? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>died</span>
  </em>
  <span>? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Mrs Dare walks into her daughter’s quiet bedroom, expecting to find her asleep, she finds a corpse instead. The ensuing scream doesn’t last long either, before a pair of hands break her neck and leave her body to lay dead on the floor next to her daughter’s corpse.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mr Dare is found having hung himself in his bedroom.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There are three bodies, but strangely enough, when Miss Annabeth Chase comes knocking on the door, there is no mention of a box of hand-bound books. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Eerily enough, Thalia texts her to tell her that they’ve arrived at their mailbox the very day, right after she left home. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth hitches a flight. It’s too risky to drive right now, not while she’s been (somewhat minorly) involved in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>murder</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her mind is racing at the speed of light, thinking about what the last thing Rachel had said to her was. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Apollo told me to call you...I don’t know why though. Hurry Annabeth, this feels wrong.” </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t how Rachel normally sounded in a conversation, not the enigmatic and mysterious Rachel everyone knew. She sounded raw and sincere, terrified.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth can’t help but think of a glaring flaw in what Rachel had said.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Apollo told me.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s impossible.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s no way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Apollo has been locked up alongside his sister for years now. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Had he escaped? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Had he broken himself out of the psych ward, sick of his life there?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> Had he tried to take an action or take revenge in this sick way? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was he responsible for the gruesome scene she’d borne witness to in the Dare family home?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth thinks about the rest of their conversation while the miles and miles of trees and rocky cliffs give way behind her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I don’t know if I’m supposed to be asking this...but who’s Thalia’s brother? What’s all this about Diana meeting him? Apollo told me his sister was missing.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Rachel hadn’t known Jason, hadn’t known about his death. She hadn’t known the toiling Annabeth had done to get the case reopened for Thalia’s sake and for her own too. She hadn’t known the horrifying circumstances and theories about his death.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her head aches.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She’s bent over her elbows, face halfway in the meal tray (no matter how unsanitary Will said it was) when a strangely soft tap on her shoulder leaves her pushing herself awake.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When she turns to see who it was however, there’s only emptiness beside her. There’s a note that floated onto her lap, it’s pale, washed-out yellow, a stark contrast to her neat gray slacks. The edge is stained with something gross and reddish, probably spillover from the disgusting airplane food.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She opens it, looking at it in shock.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Good luck, beautiful fool.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth shudders. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She turns it over.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Best not to meddle. You don’t want to know what will happen if you do.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth almost wants to laugh. The pursuit of knowledge has driven the entirety of Annabeth’s sense of motivation since birth. She most certainly wants to know what will happen if she meddles.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s hours later at the baggage handle when Annabeth realises something with the same dawning horror as Rachel had. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The page she’d received wasn’t covered in spilled oil, but smeared with blood.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>June 14th, Apollo</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...having another vision. My eyes are green again, that must be what this is. I can see him, it’s burning me. He’s bloodied and messed up, I should’ve done something…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia hasn’t opened the book. She’s very tempted to.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The one page she does flip to leaves her traumatised. She never wants to read this book ever again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Green?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Apollo had had blue eyes his whole life. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Green…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia thinks she hates green now. Hates how it reminds her of her stepmother’s stupid peacock feathers and emerald wallpaper, hates how she can’t stop thinking of the green of the woods that night-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Green-</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Woods? Why had she been thinking about the woods? Perhaps she wanted to go on holiday and didn’t realise it. Yes, she’ll go on a nice hike with Annabeth one of these days. Surely that won’t be so bad.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Green.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Green is the same sickeningly bright color as Rachel’s cold, dead, glassy eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia doesn’t want to think about her friend Diana’s crazy brother, his weird theories, or his stupid eyes. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <span>Would she be able to sleep at night if she did?</span>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth’s uncharacteristically nervous when she gets home. It’s probably because of how suddenly everyone in the Dare case died. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The first thing she does after locking the doors and windows is running to check on Thalia. Thalia’s sitting alone in her office, staring at her hands with a faint smile on her lips, her eyes glossy and not-all-there.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Look, they’re covered in sparks! Isn’t it cool?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth sighs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia never could cope with her brother’s </span>
  <strike>
    <span>death?-disappearance?</span>
  </strike>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Not fully, anyway. Some days she’s alright, other days she gets like this. Strangely lost in her own fancies about magic and lightning and the wonderful.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Very cool, Thals.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia’s hand goes to her own neck, before frowning at Annabeth.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Have you seen my camp necklace? I can’t seem to find it.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth has no idea of what Thalia speaks of. They’d gone to summer camp together and made loom band bracelets for each other. What necklace?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As if feeling a change because of Annabeth’s confusion, Thalia’s expression goes -</span>
  <em>
    <span>click.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey there, bananabeth. What took you so long?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s good old Thalia, back to normal. Annabeth knows she should get her best friend some help or something, but her fancies and dreams are of harmless things like sparkles and electricity and necklaces. Surely that’s not wrong?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She quite likes to think that Thalia’s in a dreamworld of fairies and magic spells, a place where she feels safer when trapped behind her grief. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth is relieved.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her coat is on the rack, she’s gotten a chance to take a nice long shower, and now she’s in her own home, safe and in one piece. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If only the same could be said for Jason.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth remembers the stab wou-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What? </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her memory betrays her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>How </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>Jason died? What was it again? She feels so guilty for forgetting.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was the missing posters she must’ve been thinking of, nobody had seen Jason in weeks-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No, sorry, she must’ve been thinking of the scratches and the bruises. Surf accidents at rocky beaches were deadly, and Apollo had been there-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No, no, her memory of that stab wound is so vivid, it must be that one. A long thing, a spear? It had gone straight through him. She remembers seeing them carry in the casket on shields-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Why would Jason have been carried in on a shield? Why would he have been surfing with </span>
  <em>
    <span>Apollo, </span>
  </em>
  <span>of all people, that too in an obviously dangerous place? Why would he have gone missing so suddenly? Why’d he die? Was he dead? Wasn’t he just in a coma in the hospital after an accident while trekking? Wasn’t that why she’d come home?</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia watches Annabeth on the couch quietly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She gets like this sometimes, and Thalia sighs to herself. Normally Annabeth is upbeat, intelligent and full of life. This isn’t like her. Even so, she gets like this sometimes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia swears she can see movement in the grey of Annabeth’s eyes. It’s disturbing sometimes, awe-inspiring at others. Surely it’s a simple trick of the light.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth’s lost in thought about something, and Thalia sighs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth never could cope with what had happened to Jason. He really was too young.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia’s eyes narrow and her brows furrow at the thought of that. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>happened to Jason? She’s about to follow that train of thought when all of a sudden, she goes -</span>
  <em>
    <span>click. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Ah yes, she was just going to ask bananabeth if she wanted coffee, that’s all. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m making coffee, did you want any?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth nods once, twice, three times. She’s distracted. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“By the way Thals, where’s the bookbox?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia gestures vaguely to a corner of the office. “Go read or whatever. I’ll make you a coffee.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth trudges into the office, sinks into the still-warm chair, and crosses her legs in her lap while using her arms to move the spinny-chair close enough to the bookbox to pick it up. It’s warm in her hands, and a thrill matches the shiver going up her spine when she opens it and sees strange fingerprints and stains on the inside corners. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t remember reading being this easy. She was dyslexic, after all-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wait.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Since when was </span>
  <em>
    <span>Annabeth, </span>
  </em>
  <span>who’d gotten straight A’s on her essays by barely trying, bad at reading? It’s a strange thought. Of course reading was easy, Annabeth had done it all her life.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hadn’t she?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s so strange that she normally wouldn’t be able to brush it off.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At any rate, Annabeth had left the realm of the normal behind, and  the part of her that killed titans and giants and monsters told her to embrace the abnormal.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>What?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Giants?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Titans?</span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Monsters?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth had nothing to do with any of that. Perhaps Thalia isn’t the only one who needs help. Perhaps Annabeth’s imagination has run away from her as well.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I think I’ll take that coffee, thanks.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> Annabeth had been facing Thalia and not the book just then. It would’ve been </span>
  <em>
    <span>delicious </span>
  </em>
  <span>to see Annabeth, cold and logical Annabeth, react to a book turning its pages on it’s own.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>More’s the pity.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...the voices are getting louder now. Thalia’s going to tell her. Thalia’s going to tell her. What’ll I do if she tells? Nobody can know nobody can know nobody can know please please in father’s name don’t-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>11th May, Apollo</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...he died for me, and it’s not fair, it just isn’t. The only brother who ever defended me is gone, and I’m terrified and I realise now, that I feel so alone without him fighting beside me…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth’s head </span>
  <em>
    <span>aches </span>
  </em>
  <span>something fierce. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Brother? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Brother?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What sense did that ludicrous statement make? Apollo surely didn’t mean </span>
  <em>
    <span>blood </span>
  </em>
  <span>brother, Jason wasn’t related to Apollo in the slightest.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was he?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This diary is incredibly frustrating to her. <em>It’s almost next to useless, </em>she thinks.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The dates and pages are out of order, there’s no years mentioned on any of them, and no matter how much she tries to organise them, something always seems </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She hates it. Hates it hates it hates it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This is a dishonor to a dead man’s memory-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>No it isn’t. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What on earth did she mean, dead man? Jason was hardly dead, she and Thalia hadn’t given up on him possibly surviving after the accident-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What accident? Jason was </span>
  <em>
    <span>dead, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he’d been </span>
  <em>
    <span>murdered </span>
  </em>
  <span>by Ca-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth can’t seem to run from her headaches. They just come back with a vengeance. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jason was gone. This was unfair to him. That’s all her scrambled mind seems to realise right now. It’s hardly useful, but her whole life, she’s had the motto that all progress is good progress, how would she have become Olympus’ architect otherwise-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth had given up on her architecture degree years ago. She’d never heard of a company named </span>
  <em>
    <span>Olympus </span>
  </em>
  <span>either. Perhaps she should start one.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia lingers by the door, and Annabeth waves her inside. Thalia keeps a healthy distance from the book. Annabeth doesn’t understand why.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her fingers feel ragged, and she’s sure her clothes reek of the coppery smell that’s attached to this book. She doesn’t want to think about what that means.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia nudges her shoulder, and slumps onto it. Annabeth’s wrong. This can hardly even be </span>
  <em>
    <span>called </span>
  </em>
  <span>progress. What new information had they gleaned from this book? That Apollo and his sister were delusional and had no idea how to keep a diary? That Jason was as shrouded in fear for them as ever?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth’s voice is tired from lack of use, but she manages to rasp out at Thalia either way.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“D’you know what the hell he meant by ‘brother’?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia recoils.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What did he say? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Brother</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, right here, 11th May-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t read it out to me! Just- Just what does he think he’s saying about </span>
  <em>
    <span>my </span>
  </em>
  <span>brother? They were never this close. You know that.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth frowns. Thalia has a temper, yes, but she’s not normally this defensive. She’s more than known Thalia’s mannerisms long enough to know her tells, and this is a tipoff that sends the sirens roaring in Annabeth’s brain.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thals..you know you can tell me anything, right?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Of course I know that.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth doesn’t push any further. She gets up for a moment, and hands Thalia the book, despite her protests. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get used to it already, you’ll be carrying it around a lot if we’re ever gonna figure this out.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As if just waiting for Thalia’s touch, the book flips to a page that Annabeth has somehow missed in all her research.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It makes her gag, but it makes her tremble too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>22nd August, Apollo.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“...his old man was in town. I should ask him, but he told me to fuck off last time I tried knocking on his door. But I need help, what’ll I do without help? I should just go and ask, we won’t get anywhere if I’m a coward. Perseus Jackson, load up your boat. You’re taking me out to the atoll tonight.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth flinches at the mention of Percy’s name. Thalia looks over at her warily. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“There something </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>wanna tell me? I haven’t been in touch with the Jacksons in years.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s uh..the Blofises now. On Sally’s part at least. Percy kept the name, for whatever reason. His father’s side got him into the family line of work, they have their trading and fishing setup, you know the one.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia nods. Percy’s father’s family owns most of the docks in town, and most every other is an affiliate. You would have to be crazy not to be, they had a monopoly in the area. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I guess..I guess Apollo had something to ask Percy before-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth is cut off by what feels like a band of iron tightening around her skull.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Whatever. We might as well get some fresh air, feels like I’ll die young at this rate,” Annabeth grumbles.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia whacks her shoulder.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t say that, it isn’t funny.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The wind is buffeting them today, fierce and fast. It’s a sharp sting on Thalia’s cheeks. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her feet stop a few feet ahead of Annabeth’s (not that she’d rather be here either).</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The looming silhouette of the trawlers coming in after a shift makes Thalia shiver. She’s terrified of them. When she was younger she’d heard that Percy’s stepmother had tossed someone right off the edge and into the nets. She’s had no interest in them ever since. The fact that it wasn’t something Amy would do was beside the point, she was terrified.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They creak and there’s a foghorn going off in the distance. The mirey mist over everything around them is terrifying. It only makes it seem worse.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth holds her hand, as if to reassure her. The only thing it serves to do is remind Thalia that Annabeth’s hands are shaking worse than hers.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Shadow over Innsmouth,” Annabeth mutters condescendingly. Thalia neither wants or needs to know.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hand in hand they reach the office for inquiries. There’s a woman sitting there, a good deal older than them both, disinterested and unafraid by the elements. She’s languidly popping her gum and looking over a magazine, and from the looks of it when Thalia cranes her neck over to look at her, it’s a bridal magazine.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She seems to notice them looking. Annabeth almost feels self-conscious.  </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This woman looks like she should be </span>
  <em>
    <span>in </span>
  </em>
  <span>the magazine she’s reading. She’s got perfect, unblemished skin, and a trailing braid of platinum blonde hair. Delicate, angelic features that look like they ought to be plastered on advertisements trying to convince you to get plastic surgery. Tall and slender, she’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>gorgeous. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What business did a woman like that have here?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She gives them a once-over and smiles, a little bitterly, maybe even condescendingly? Thalia has lived with Annabeth for years, she’s familiar with condescension. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Looking for Percy?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth seems like she’s been startled out of her reverie, and nods a little dazedly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, uh, yes. That-That’s why we’re here...Miss?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her eyes go to the magazine the woman’s holding. She laughs at them, and it’s melodic and soft and everything seems tranquil and lovely for a moment. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Just got divorced. I’m calling my brother to celebrate with a couple of drinks.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Brother?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s pressing and it’s irritating that Annabeth can’t seem to remember, it’s just that the mention of brothers has her thinking of Jason again and it </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurts, please help him, save him, somebody-</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>The woman sighs fondly.</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, Percy’s my half-brother, but sure feels like there's no real difference.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia’s eyes widen.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I uh..didn’t-I wasn’t aware of that, ma’am.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The woman’s smile seems to twist into a more genuine one, and oddly enough a smile seems out of place even on her delicate features.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No need for all that ma’am crap. Just got divorced, let a girl feel young again. Call me Kim.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s short for Kimberly or something?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kim’s eyes dart back to Annabeth, icy blue and pale. “Why not.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All of a sudden, Annabeth’s pain returns. It shoots through her head, and she clenches a little too tightly onto Thalia’s arm.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Would you excuse us for a moment? Go ahead and talk to Percy first, we gotta run to the bathroom really quick,” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia is an expert at deflecting. Kim doesn’t seem to notice, waving them along as her boot heels clack on the ground. She’s getting up to wander further into the building, and she’s out of sight soon enough.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Once they’re in the bathroom, Annabeth locks the door behind her hurriedly, yanking Thalia further away from it and over by the sinks. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thals, Thals listen. I- The book. She’s the same Kim.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean, </span>
  <em>
    <span>same Kim?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth pulls out her phone to show Thalia the screenshot she’d taken (after scrolling through the screenshots of dozens of other pages). </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span> 25th September, Diana</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...Apollo told me. Jason was never one to break promises, he told Kym he’d do it for her at any cost. Wonder what’s going on between those two, didn’t think he knew old man Don’s daughter. She must miss him now.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why the hell is her name spelled with a y?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Because it’s not short for Kimberly. It’s Kymo-Kympo-something.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why’d she..Why’d she lie then?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Probably because it’s easier to explain that way? Don’t jump to conclusions, Thalia. I’m more worried about what Diana meant by promises, I didn’t even think Jason knew she existed.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Can’t say no to a pretty girl?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Before Annabeth has a chance to object, there’s a knocking on the door. It’s rattling the hinges even with little force behind it, and it makes Annabeth shudder.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You girls done in there?” Kym’s voice calls sweetly. “Gotta fix my makeup.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth throws a ‘yeah, coming,’ in Kym’s direction before giving Thalia a rather severe look, as if to say ‘not a word from you about this in front of her’.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They stumble out the door, less coordinated in flats that Kym is in heels. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Percy’s free now, just go up that hallway and take a left.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth murmurs a ‘thanks’ and Thalia nods at her before waving with an awkward smile. Kym laughs quietly, waving them off. Thalia thinks she hears a muttering, something about ‘the poor girl’ and ‘should’ve asked me for a tampon’ and ‘good thing she could change’. Thalia almost wants to laugh back.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s far too soon to ask her about Jason and his promises, but Thalia is sure there must be something they can accomplish today. If all else fails, Kym will probably be more open to sharing after she has those drinks she mentioned going out for. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth leads the way, a little hesitantly. She’s been in touch with Percy’s mom, and his sister too, but she hasn’t been able to really say anything to Percy after the night they’d heard about him leaving.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her knocking raps against the door, professional and curt. Percy opens it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia is almost tempted to gasp. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’s barely changed at all. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He simply looks more tired, a little older, but there is still something undeniably boyish in those eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth visibly stumbles, but Percy catches her by the hand.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You okay?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth nods, her eyes downcast. It’s been a long, long time. Too long.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Pinecone face, good to see you that you’re still in town.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s strangely unfamiliar as far as a tone goes. They haven’t talked in a long, long time, not since Estelle started elementary school. Does that warrant the distance in the way they talk to each other? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Right back atcha, kelp head. Thought your old man got you out of here for good.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amy would never have let him, you know.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Fair, fair.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy shows them inside, and Annabeth’s feet are glad for the rest.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Amy?” Annabeth says, her voice soft.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guess she got attached, huh Perce?” Thalia adds on.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy says nothing for a moment, rummaging around in his drawer for something, before he hands them a picture. It’s a well worn one, clearly one Percy’s fond of.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It looks to be a warm sunny day, what with all the light pouring in from the windows. It’s Sally’s kitchen, and there’s trays and trays of cookies and brownies on the island. The picture shows Amy getting a cake out of the oven while Sally ices some of the cookies, and on the back there’s both of their signatures in blue glitter pen.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, guess she did.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth seems loath to depress the soft mood in the room by bringing up Jason and his sister and all the things she never wants to properly discuss with him, so Thalia takes over for her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Gonna get drinks with Kym later?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy nods.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“C’mon, my sister just got divorced, she’s finally happy again. If he was here, I bet Ja-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He cuts himself off, a little guiltily. Thalia gestures for him to go on.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She told him all about how she’d been planning to break it off with her husband for years, and he was really proud of her for standing up for herself. Kym got attached too, I guess.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth looks over at Thalia questioningly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was this the promise in the book? Had Jason promised Kym that he’d help her get a divorce? Had her marriage really been so bad that he’d have to do that at ‘any cost’? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth doesn’t know, she doesn’t know and it’s frightening.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Were they close?” she asks.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy thinks for a minute, reminiscing for a moment to frame a better answer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not that much at first, but it’s kinda hard to not get close to someone when you’ve gotten comfortable enough to confide all your worries to them. Kym really felt overlooked in our family, and Jason was special to her. It hit her real hard when he-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy gets cut off again, perhaps intentionally, perhaps unintentionally. He reaches for his temples with a hiss, looking at them both apologetically.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, sorry.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth throws Thalia a look. Could he have..?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, the point is she’s not doing so great without him.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, neither are we.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A silence falls over the room. Annabeth looks back at Percy again, at those earnest, warm eyes that have been there for the tragedy she’s unable to solve. She works up the courage to finally ask.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We need your help. We, really, really, need your help.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The trawler’s creaky. Percy’s chosen a rather inconspicuous mode of travel for them, and as they pull away from shore, the salty air seems to dull Percy’s headache to what must be a faint throbbing, though it makes Annabeth’s headache that much worse. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Waves are crashing at the sides of the boat, and the net crane groans and creaks miserably. There’s a nagging feeling of uncertainty that itches up the back of Thalia’s neck at that, but she brushes it off reluctantly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They’re further out to sea than either of them expected.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia pulls her windbreaker tighter around herself, the grey fabric is soaked through till it looks black.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth goes to the edge, clinging the railing with white knuckles and watery eyes. She was seasick, the rocking and bowing of the ship leaving her nauseous and pained. Her groans match the crane’s, and Thalia nearly screams when it bows in her direction with the buckling of the boat.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The waves crash higher and higher, and sooner than Thalia thought they’d reach, they’re at the atoll where Apollo had planned to investigate. The sand is damp under her shoes, and she silently takes the flashlight Percy hands her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth seems to have some newfound determination, and she hands Thalia a flare from her backpack before waving Percy over to the opposite side of the atoll, by the cave system.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia shivers in the damp, dreary air. The humidity is making her hair rise and frizz up, and there’s a strange fear in her while she roams the shoreline that formed over the atoll, ducking through trees and bushes. Thalia knows this place isn’t so much an atoll as manmade island, but they’ve been calling it an atoll for decades now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia’s eyes are sharp, and she isn’t quite sure what she’s looking for, until suddenly, she sees a flare go up from the area Percy and Annabeth have been searching. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They’ve found something.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia rushes over as best as she can, nearly tripping over the rocks almost twice. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The cave entrance has a rope tied to the biggest boulder by the entrance, secure and tight. Thalia has always hated dark enclosed spaces, she was terribly claustrophobic. She steels her nerves, holding the rope tightly with one hand and her flashlight with the other.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Another flare comes up, and Thalia barely dodges before it nearly hits her. They must be really anxious to show her their discovery. Thalia’s eyes dart to the walls, looking over the paintings and the odd graffitied tag on them. There’s names, yes, but there are also handprints left in what she fervently hopes is just paint, and there’s a date tagged onto one of the walls further ahead of her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t realise how Percy and Annabeth missed it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She screams.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>1st July, Apollo</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...he found me, Di. He found me. It’s all over for me now, and if you find this I’m definitely dead. Don’t let him get you too, he already got Jason. You’re nex-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>-</p><p>“You’re next.” </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Thalia’s heart is racing alongside her thoughts.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> What?  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Her scream rings through the walls of the cave, the echo bouncing across the many twists and turns and caverns.</p><p> </p><p>Somewhere deep in the caves, an answering shriek is heard.</p><p> </p><p>The sound of her blood rushing makes it difficult for Thalia to make out what the shriek was saying, but it only makes her shuddering worse.</p><p> </p><p>“The hell does he mean, next? Who’s <em> getting- </em>Is this Jason’s fault? Gods-” </p><p> </p><p>Thalia’s hysterical whispers take over her mind, and she closes her eyes and hits the floor. Curled up into a ball and covering her ears with both hands, Thalia rather suddenly feels very small and very scared.</p><p> </p><p>That was her first mistake.</p><p> </p><p>What Thalia doesn’t realise is that information is powerful. This can be forgiven since she’s sure her death is near, but hysteria helps no one. By locking out the flow of information, Thalia had no way of knowing what happened right in front of her while she wilfully refused to witness it.</p><p> </p><p>Time seems to freeze, and all Thalia can hear is her own heartbeat. Her hands drown out the sounds of the cave system. From behind her eyelids she can sense a bright flash of light, and the sound of something very wet and slimy sliding across the rock behind her cuts through her desperate attempts otherwise.</p><p>Then, there is silence. </p><p> </p><p>Thalia is reluctant to open her eyes, but no longer covers her ears. She can hear a faded, soft version of a man’s voice, and that wet sound again, and when Thalia opens her eyes, she goes -<em> click </em>once more.</p><p> </p><p>If only Thalia had known. If only she hadn’t been willfully blinding herself, perhaps she would’ve made a vital discovery before she forgot everything again.</p><p> </p><p>The writing on the rock is gone. It’s blank once again, as if untouched by human hands.</p><p> </p><p>She sees a flare go off again, and holds the other, still burning flare in hand while taking a gulp. Slowly, miserably, Thalia takes a hold of the rope and descends further into the caves.</p><p> </p><p>There’s probably wild animals here, but Thalia is a woman on a mission, she certainly won’t be stopped now. </p><p> </p><p>After only 15 minutes of half jogging, half running along the rope, she sees Percy and Annabeth’s footprints. </p><p> </p><p>She <em> hopes </em>they’re Percy and Annabeth’s footprints.</p><p> </p><p>Following them leads her to Annabeth’s bag and both of their shoes, and she gulps again. They’ve both decided, it seems, to take a dive.</p><p> </p><p>It’s only natural, of course. Throwing evidence into a pool in an atoll is a good way to get rid of it, surely it was their first instinct to get in the water-</p><p> </p><p>But Annabeth <em> hated </em>water, didn’t she? Her mother had never resolved things with Percy’s-</p><p> </p><p>Thalia’s head aches with contradictory thoughts.</p><p> </p><p>Why would Annabeth’s mother factor into Annabeth’s swimming ability? Why on earth would Annabeth’s family have anything to do with Percy’s? They’d had trade disputes, but things blew over in small towns and personal grudges.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth had gone to summer camp with her, they’d made loom band bracelets and gone swimming in the big lake. They’re both good swimmers, not like Percy, who’d nearly been eligible for the junior Olympics, but decently strong swimmers all the same.</p><p> </p><p>Somehow, there is something wrong here, and Thalia’s hindbrain knows it. After a lifetime of recreation in the water, something tells her not to get in the atoll.</p><p> </p><p>After only a few moments of contemplation, Percy and Annabeth surface. Annabeth seems oddly dazed, and her eyes are out of focus, but she's alright and so is Percy, and that’s Thalia’s main priority at the moment. They don’t discuss her scream, which leads her to believe they hadn’t heard it, underwater as they were.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Then who screamed back? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> 19th April, Diana </em>
</p><p> </p><p>“...that’s why I love being out so much. I can’t go out often, they won’t let me. I still love the woods though. Jason mentioned there were wild blueberries out not far from here last time Apollo asked. I should try and sneak out to get some tonight.” </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth’s shivering. It’s deceptively cold out, but it’s probably the middle of the night and extremely late. She’s not quite sure what use getting in the pool was, but the both of them were sure they’d seen <em> something </em>glinting back at them.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth’s certain that for a moment Percy hadn’t been next to her, that she’d been alone in the grand, shimmering pool. She’s sure she heard screaming, but both Percy and Thalia seem perfectly fine. She doesn’t want to bring down the mood.</p><p> </p><p>Thalia’s examining the things they picked up out of the bottom of the pool. What seems to be an old coin, a pair of gloves, and a piece of ripped fabric.</p><p> </p><p>All of it is useless. </p><p> </p><p>A pair of gloves weren’t a guarantee that a murder had taken place or something stupid like that. It could very well have been discarded equipment.</p><p> </p><p>A piece of ripped fabric didn’t guarantee anything either. Things went wrong while exploring, sometimes that meant your clothes catching on something sharp and tearing clean off.</p><p> </p><p>All of Annabeth’s suspicion is directed toward the coin.</p><p> </p><p>It’s strange, carved with something she doesn’t recognise and glimmering like precious metal. It might truly be gold. Why on earth would someone bring it while <em> spelunking, </em>of all the activities? If it was real, it was probably worth a good deal of money.</p><p> </p><p>Percy had suggested that it could’ve been of sentimental value to whoever owned it, important enough to bring along on a possibly dangerous trip. Thalia wonders if it was a coin to make a wish with, like the pools in Luray Caverns.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth isn’t so sure of either theory, something about it just seems off.</p><p> </p><p>Thalia breaks her out of her train of thought.</p><p> </p><p>“You both need to hurry up and get changed, we can’t afford to have you both ending up with pneumonia or something.” </p><p> </p><p>Percy’s unzipping the backpack and getting out the change of clothes they’d shoved in there. Annabeth looks for a decently large rock to duck behind, and pulls off her soggy, wet clothes to towel off. </p><p> </p><p><em> This water better not have had anything gross in it, </em>she mutters to herself mentally, ruffling her curls and tugging to make them tight. Thalia’s humming to herself from where she’s sitting by the backpack, and Annabeth wishes desperately that she were home.</p><p> </p><p>This ‘roughing it’ shit just wasn’t her thing. She <em> never </em>wanted to do it again.</p><p> </p><p>Soon enough, all three of them are following the rope back out of the cave, unsurprised to see the shadow of heavy night that’s fallen on everything around them. </p><p> </p><p>The trees are creaking, and Annabeth thinks about the <em>wisha-wisha-wisha</em> noise of how they're described in Enid Blyton’s books. The wind rustles through the plants around them. Percy’s shining her flashlight in all directions, and Annabeth has half a mind to slap it out of his hand before he uses up her batteries.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey look, blueberries! Didn’t know they grew wild out here.” </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth gives Thalia a look, to which Thalia responds “What? I’m hungry too, genius.” </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth’s too busy savoring the sweet flavor in her mouth to think of the botanical impossibility of these berries to grow wild, probably because her brain is reluctant to acknowledge the truth, that they’d never grow out here on their own.</p><p> </p><p>She simply pushes them both to eat faster.</p><p> </p><p>They’re off the island before the clock hits 3 AM, and they’re underway before 4.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth and Thalia settle into one of the guest rooms by the pier building, waving Percy goodnight while he goes to hide the evidence of their late night rendezvous at the island before going to bed himself.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth stands on the balcony, phone in one hand and coin in the other. Thalia’s already fast asleep. Annabeth turns it over in her hand while the dim light of her phone under the blinding compound and street lights illuminates the world around her. </p><p> </p><p>There’s no mention of any coins like this one being produced by the government, but she isn’t sure what else to call this thing. What she does realise, is that this carving is latin, and that it reads ‘JULIUS’ in raised letters.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth shoves it in her pocket, slumping onto the balcony. She opens her saved folder of diary entries from Apollo and Diana’s books.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>“...Seph said the old pawn store was up and running again. Bia left years ago for college and never came back, but Nico’s staying out of trouble and Hazel’s keeping her hands busy now that they’ve got the family store to run.” </p><p> </p><p> -</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Seph? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth wracks her mind, thinking through her sleepiness. Seph was The old pawn store owner’s second wife, his first wife Maria had left him a widower with two children about a year before they’d met.</p><p>Annabeth really only knows her as Bianca’s stepmother. She’d been on Thalia’s archery team once, and they'd met very briefly. Bianca had left in the middle of their small talk, and when Annabeth had asked who was calling, Bianca said it was her stepmom.</p><p> </p><p>Percy’s back now, waving up at her before walking into the building and turning off the lights behind him. Annabeth pushes herself off the railing and walks back into the room.</p><p> </p><p>‘We need to go to the pawn shop tmrw’ </p><p> </p><p>‘K. gnn’ </p><p> </p><p>It’s not much but it’s satisfactory. Annabeth throws a ‘gnn’ back at him before she exits Percy’s dm and sets her alarm for tomorrow, or more accurately, sets her alarm for about 4 hours from now. They’ll be late to breakfast, but then again, Annabeth is sure there’s bound to be leftovers waiting for them at the very least.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>The car ride back into town is surprisingly nice, in Thalia’s opinion.</p><p> </p><p>Both Thalia and Annabeth had underestimated how far they’d managed to walk yesterday, but they’d gotten to the pier. Today, exactly nobody has the patience to walk back.</p><p> </p><p>The ground is half gravel and half dirt under the tires, and the wind is shipping past them again. Annabeth has stuck her head out the window for the view. </p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Thalia thinks the seaside air hasn’t done them any favors, but the woods certainly have. The belt of green across the backroads they’re driving makes the whole place seem idyllic and beautiful. It’s entirely the opposite of the truth, but their tourism is already shot to hell, and Thalia doesn’t want to make it worse.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>Percy’s taken the shortest route, rather unfortunately. The view soon disappears, replaced by what seems like infinite lines of old-fashion colonial homes and wood lodges. There’s barking dogs and streets full of kids playing without supervision, almost like time has stopped here. </p><p> </p><p>Thalia closes her eyes to shut it out.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>The familiar rumbles and noises of people indicate that they’re back in town again, and Percy’s weaving through the lanes and past diners and coffee shops, driving past the shopfronts that have been family-owned for decades.</p><p> </p><p>Soon enough, they arrive at the storefront they’ve been looking for all this time. </p><p> </p><p>The town’s one and only pawn shop.</p><p> </p><p>There’s not too many people by this storefront anymore, not as many as there used to be even a decade ago. All the better, they’re in need of privacy. The door tinkles slow and soft, just as dignified as Thalia remembers it being. Percy holds the door after they get it, and Annabeth simply stares for a moment before walking inside as well.</p><p> </p><p>There’s a hushed conversation by the counter, and sure enough, the diary speaks the truth once again. Nico and Hazel stand together at the counter, polishing vintage pocket watches and rings.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey,” Thalia calls softly. “If you’re not too busy, could you take a look at this for us?” </p><p> </p><p>Nico and Hazel look up, equally as surprised to see Percy as she and Annabeth were. Hazel gives Nico a look, and Nico tilts his head at the door. For a wild, improbable moment, Thalia wonders if they’re going to be kicked out, but that doesn’t happen.</p><p> </p><p>Nico walks up front to flip the sign to closed, and locks the door to the store. </p><p> </p><p>“Now we can talk.” </p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Annabeth shivers, pulling her scarf tighter around her neck. She’s only been here once before, to see if she could get a good price on a ring her brother was trying to sell.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The mood is entirely different right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For one, she’s never met Hazel or Nico at the counter before. Usually Thanatos was here, at times it was the owner himself. Before Maria died, she’d worked here too. Seph had no connection to this store, she ran a floristry just down the street.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth remembers seeing Thanatos here last time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’d been extremely intimidating for a 19 year old to look in the eyes. He’d been nothing but polite, however frightening he’d appeared. The very image of professionalism. She’d gotten a decent price on the ring and had sent the money back to her brother in peace. This is far different.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The room feels uncomfortably intense, for one thing. Nico’s fingertips are dyed pink-red from the pomegranate sitting on the counter, but something about that fruit, dripping juice onto the glass, shakes her. It invokes a nasty feeling in her chest, and the sour-sweet smell of the juice is light compared to the haze of flowery air freshener sprayed in the store. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hazel seems nervous, and Annabeth can tell. She’s always had a habit of fiddling with her zipper when she was anxious, she’d done it before her major competitions in the jumping circuit with Arion. Annabeth can’t fathom </span>
  <em>
    <span>why </span>
  </em>
  <span>though. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s a hush over the room when the coin is placed on the counter, and Hazel’s shyness suddenly turns to anger. Her glare is heavy and Annabeth’s cheeks sting under that accusatory look.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>The coin, as usual, glints innocently in the warm midday light. The glas underneath it illuminates the rings and bracelets on display with that same wash of soft golden light, and it’s almost unbelievable to Annabeth that such a peaceful day could be ruined so quickly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You mean to tell me you’re investigating Jason’s case without even knowing about his valuables? Are you kidding me?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy recoils, Hazel’s never been light to use that tone with </span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She’s usually incredibly understanding and patient, but it seems as though her patience has worn thin.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’s an authentic vintage, a custom carved coin. These were never in circulation as actual currency, but they were identity cards of a sort for people in secret societies. Jason had been reading about one of them and had asked for this coin back then.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia seems to wilt from where she’s standing, and Annabeth grinds her teeth guiltily. What sense was there in looking into Jason’s life when they weren’t even aware of the little things that mattered? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where the hell did you find this?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy nudges Annabeth to answer, as if realising that it’s only her who can put it into words despite their collective shame. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We were looking into a cave system for our investigation. This was in one of the cave pools along with these.” Annabeth removes the gloves and the torn fabric from the backpack to lay out on the counter.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We didn’t know why they were there, so...we decided to bring them in to see if any of them could be identified or valued.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nico turns over the gloves with a critical eye, and Hazel smooths over the ripped fabric. Nico looks up.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Jason </span>
  <em>
    <span>lost</span>
  </em>
  <span> his coin. He couldn’t find it after-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Something comes over the room. A lull, of shame and silence. The moment is over before it begins. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hazel perks up first. The rest are still dead-eyed for a moment before she says “Look, this has a bloodstain on it. Well, I’m pretty sure it’s a bloodstain anyway.” She looks at Nico, wordlessly asking something, and he points her vaguely toward one of the many doors behind the counter, and says “Second door to the left, first cabinet.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy’s white-knuckled grip on the wooden frame of the glass doesn’t ease up, it only tightens. “What?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nico looks at all three of them oddly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You heard her. It’s most likely a bloodstain.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hazel runs back into the room before any of them can respond to Nico’s statement, and her arms are full of </span>
  <em>
    <span>something.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nico rushes to turn off the lights for her, and Hazel gestures at the bottle she’d brought in. “Luminol,” she points, and just barely, they can make it out in the darkness. </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>She shakes the bottle a few times, and sprays it over the stain after looking for it with a flashlight. She turns the flashlight back off once it’s covered in the stuff, and she reaches for the odd cylinder she’d brought in with the Luminol.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“This is a blacklight, and if there’s Luminol and blood, it’ll show under a blacklight by-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She pauses, switching it on, and watching as all three of them crowd around her like students in the science lab witnessing an experiment for the first time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Glowing.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sure enough, there’s an almost skid-like stain that’s glowing on the fabric, surrounded by little splatters. Hazel points at the glow, before calling for Nico to turn the lights back on.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia takes a step back, hugging herself as if to feel a little more secure. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth glares at her own feet, and Percy’s eyes are still locked onto the incriminating piece of fabric. Hazel looks right back at them.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you're saying...this coin is something connected to a supposed ‘secret society’ that Jason was investigating instead of leaving well enough alone, this fabric proves that someone was bleeding in that pool, and the gloves are practically useless.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nico huffs out a cracked, bitter laugh. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not </span>
  <em>
    <span>completely </span>
  </em>
  <span>useless. These are good climbing gloves.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Climbing gloves...climbing gloves...climbing gloves…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s something off about that, and Annabeth can’t quite decide what it is. Thalia gestures to one of the waiting booths. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, can we get a minute to just...sit and think about this?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nico nods while on his way to reopen the store.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel waves them over to it. </span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia slumps onto the vinyl seats, her back in its permanent slouch. Annabeth wracks her brain, thinking of something, </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything </span>
  </em>
  <span>that could make some sort of sense. It’s just not coming to her.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where’s Percy?” asks Thalia, and Annabeth looks up from her wondering. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She pokes her head out of the booth, and sees Percy standing at the counter, discussing something with Hazel. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Guess he’s picking something up while we’re here.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth slumps as well, right into her own lap. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Know any climbers? Thals?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia shakes her head no, and resorts to tracing little lines into the condensation gathering on the window their booth is next to.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth’s nails scrape idly along the wood of their table, the little scritchy-scratchy noises making her think of a pen on paper.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There’s no revelation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Why?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth was no stranger to epiphanies. She’d had many over the years. You don’t end up going from Camp Halfblood to Camp Jupiter without- </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Her head throbs again, and she has half a mind to get a prescription for hard migraine meds. The hell was a ‘Camp Halfblood’ or a ‘Camp Jupiter’? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hazel’s animatedly discussing something with Percy when she pokes her head out of the booth again, and they’re clearly not discussing the coin or the cloth.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wait...the cloth.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth looks back at Hazel and Nico, a little hesitantly.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How’d they know it was a bloodstain? Sure enough to get out the Luminol and a blacklight? </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It makes her uneasy. Hazel was one of the trustworthy people in town. Nico was staying out of trouble, and he’d never- Jason was </span>
  <em>
    <span>important </span>
  </em>
  <span>to Nico, someone he’d called friend-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth is sure that slamming her head open into two matching halves on this table would be the best relief. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy walks over, and Annabeth isn’t sure how much time passed between her stupid suspicious power trip and him finishing whatever he was doing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Here,” Percy hands her something. It’s a little coral bracelet. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s this for? Percy c’mon, I can’t accept it-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Nah, I insist. Just got back in town, don’t need you forgetting so soon.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth thinks she hates the word forget now.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, watch this.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Percy pins a little gold pin in the shape of a pinecone onto Thalia’s jacket.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Don’t tell her, yeah?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth cracks a small smile. The bracelet is pretty sweet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Won’t.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...you need permission to enter. You can’t get in without a pass or a password. They’re pretty stuck up about that sort of thing, but <strike>JhuerA</strike> is nice enough to give us a free go, pissy little bitch though she is. It’s for his good, so no wonder. Bet she still feels guilty. It was all her fault anyway.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Another page is missed in Annabeth’s hasty browsing. Too bad. It would’ve been of some use to her to find that page. Instead, she finds something strange and slightly horrifying. A series of numbers written on a page, and it goes on and on. 124 numbers in neat lines.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At first she doesn’t know what to make of it, and forgoes her phone for the physical copy of the book. That is when she realises. There’s a wash of oddly coloured lines on the page, and when Annabeth’s suspicion turns out to be true, she nearly drops the damned book, convinced it was possessed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Annabeth holds a heat source to the odd lines on the page, she can see a message, from none other than Jason himself. In this horrifying book, there’s a part of the victim to the crime they’re solving.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth reads it, turning the page sideways to see the words clearly. They’re a messy scrawl, quite unlike the neat cursive Jason usually wrote in.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“These numbers keep appearing on my door, four at a time every day. The whole month, from the first day of June to today, my birthday, four numbers appear on my door every night.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know what it is, but these numbers seem weird. There’s a pattern to them...maybe they add up to something?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m going to stay up late and see if anything changes.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s odd, usually these sequences start with 2, today the first number was 0.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god no-” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“These numbers keep appearing on my door, four at a time every day. The whole month, from the first day of June to today, my birthday, four numbers appear on my door every night. Someone is stalking me and writing down the time I fall asleep every single night on my door.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I wish I could go home. But she won’t let me go back. She keeps saying something bad will happen to me. I don’t understand, I just don’t.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m leaving tonight. I can’t stay here anymore.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“She got there just now. How long till she finds me?” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth does in fact drop the book. Her hands are shaky and her eyes are watery and burning. She reaches for the coral bracelet at her wrist, before scrambling for her phone and frantically calling Thalia and Percy.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Annabeth’s stomach is roiling, and she nearly retches out of pure disgust. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was it actually Jason's entry? Only Jason's birthday was the first right? This writer never referred to themselves by name. It had to be Jason though, who else could it possibly be? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The phone is still ringing, and the striking lightning outside flashes bright and mirrored on the window. It's a bright and vivid color on the darkness of the stormy twilight sky, and the sharp blue-white-gold makes Annabeth feel impossibly guilty. Her thoughts are spinning and her heart is racing, her hands aren't the only part of her that's trembling.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It's his eyes, it's her eyes too, and I can't run away from what I did anymore, no god please just pick up the PHONE THALIA PLEASE-</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>By some miracle, Thalia picks up. Her voice is gritty and crackling with interference, but Annabeth can just barely understand.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re-We’re COMING! GIVE US A MINUTE, OUR BUS GOT IN AN ACCIDENT ON THE WAY TO OUR STOP.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Thalia’s screaming over the pouring rain outside, and Annabeth crumples in on herself.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>For the first time since Rachel died, she feels like she’s bitten off more than she can chew.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>-</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>March 13th, Apollo</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"...most beautiful dancer I ever saw, I wonder if Diana will ask her to join, it'll be a real pity if she does..."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Heyy, getting back into ballet after all these years?" </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth frowns at Thalia. Thalia doesn't seem to notice, and just keeps talking.</p><p> </p><p>"I don't blame you, everything has been so stressful lately-" </p><p> </p><p>"What the hell are you on about Thals? I didn't start doing ballet again!" </p><p> </p><p>Thalia stares at her strangely.</p><p> </p><p>"Well, forgive me for assuming that a box full of old ballet slippers and tutus, signed with 'gentlemen truly do prefer blondes' was yours." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth sputters indignantly.</p><p> </p><p>"Thalia are you insane? I've never had a box like that."</p><p> </p><p>"Then whose is this?"<br/><br/></p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"...I remember when I first saw her dance. All long legs and strong arms, pretty smiles and feathers. Beautiful, god, she was beautiful. Never seen a dancer smile like that, it took my breath away. </p><p> </p><p>She was being pulled into a lift, and she looked right at home, like she was just meant to be above the rest of us. She was <em>glowing </em>that night. Made her partner's heart stop, I'm sure about that.</p><p> </p><p>Every time she leapt, she soared. She really felt like a Swan, fluttering her feet and beating her wings like a bird longing to be freed from the hands of men, to be set loose into the world and into the open skies. I think- I think I'm-"</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Thalia looks at Annabeth.</p><p> </p><p>"What're you looking at."</p><p> </p><p>"Yet another creepily accurate page. Well, not so much 'accurate' as really weirdly detailed about someone this box could-" </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth cuts herself off with a gasp. </p><p> </p><p>"D'you think...someone sent this to us? That they knew we had the diaries?" </p><p> </p><p>Thalia looks at Annabeth's shaky fingers and hears the hitch in her voice. She wants desperately to comfort her. It's just an unfortunate fact that Annabeth is right about things rather often.</p><p> </p><p>"I...I don't know."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"I did it. I bought a bouquet this time. A huge one. I don't even know if she's going to like it, but I picked it just for her.</p><p> </p><p>She's coming up to take a bow, and everyone else is throwing roses too...should I go? I should. I want her to know."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"What kind of demented love story is this?"<br/><br/><br/></p><p>Annabeth cracks a wry smile.</p><p> </p><p>"Gets worse when you realise this guy's biographer is <em>Apollo, </em>of all men." </p><p> </p><p>"This was doomed to failure before it even began."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"She's with someone else, some other man. He's clearly gotten ahead of me.</p><p> </p><p>She's all smiles around him, her pretty blue eyes light up like I've never seen them light up around anyone else. I can see the shine in them when she's around him.</p><p> </p><p>He's got an arm around her waist, he's got a bouquet too. Lilies. She's giggling and covering her mouth with her pretty little hands, she's got this beautiful flush to those cheeks of hers, and god I never want to stop looking at her.</p><p> </p><p>And now I want to stop looking.</p><p> </p><p>He's kissing her.</p><p> </p><p>She's laughing and smiling and kissing back. </p><p> </p><p>It hurts, hurts that I'm too late.</p><p> </p><p>Would that have been me? If I'd just been a little faster? If I'd decided to stay?</p><p> </p><p>I never meant to hurt her, I never wanted to leave."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Thalia snorts. </p><p> </p><p>"Well, that's the end of it, right?"<br/><br/><br/></p><p>Annabeth chuckles.</p><p> </p><p>"Not by a long shot." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"...saw her...ice cream parlour today...on a date.</p><p> </p><p>She seems surprised to see me. She's getting up from beside him to come talk to me. Is it bad if I'm happy about that?</p><p> </p><p>If it's so easy to leave him behind for me, why not do it again, <strike>Jaybird</strike>? Just once, please, let me kiss you.</p><p> </p><p>Let me see how a sundae tastes when I'm eating it off your sweet mouth, let me know how soft your lips are from all the cherry chapstick you put on them. </p><p> </p><p>But no, she doesn't kiss me. She hugs me, and she smells like those roses I never got to give her. It's the same perfume she's had for years now. It's soft and tempting and just like her.</p><p> </p><p>I'm going to ask her if we can dance again.</p><p> </p><p>I want to feel her in my arms again so badly."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Desperate much?"</p><p> </p><p>"Oh yeah, definitely."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Swan Queen is what she is, Swan Queen and Firebird and Dovecote. She's perfect.</p><p> </p><p>No other girl's ever made me feel like this. I've been dancing with her for years and I always feel the same way, that dancing is like breathing to her.</p><p> </p><p>She's not dancing, she's floating on the air and the winds are proudly carrying her like their mistress. Queenly. That is the word for her.</p><p> </p><p>She still has that necklace I gave her. I wonder what she'll do if I ask her-"</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Oh c'mon, why'd it have to cut off here?"</p><p> </p><p>"Thalia, I don't make the rules, I didn't write this damn book."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"I know now. I know how it feels to kiss her. I know how her lips feel under mine, I know how she wraps her arms around my nape and gets up on pointe just to reach me. She's so warm in my arms whenever I hold her.</p><p> </p><p>This one's mine. You perfect, shining goddess of a woman. I love you." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"What happened to the other guy?"<br/><br/><br/>"FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME THALIA, I DON'T KNOW."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"You told him to remember. <em>I will remember.</em> I can't forget you Rosie, I'll never forget you.</p><p> </p><p>I remember so many things about you, I remember all the things nobody else knows about. Forgive me my indulgences, I long for you like I've never ached for any other woman, and I think you know that too.</p><p> </p><p>I remember you as July roses and red lipstick prints on my cheeks when you kissed me goodnight.</p><p> </p><p>I remember you as the goodbyes up on your tiptoes, before you disappeared from me on the 7 o'clock train.</p><p> </p><p>I remember you as a haze of raw power and delicate smiles, and I suppose, when I think of Jeanette Rosé Grace, the first word that I think of is beautiful.</p><p> </p><p>That much emotion about one woman, that can only ever be beautiful, because even if forces of nature are not meant for mortals to have, it felt like a dream to touch you, and I remember that forever as beautiful.</p><p> </p><p>You see? I can never forget you. Nobody will forget you as long as I live."</p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Grace?"</p><p> </p><p>Thalia recoils nearly half a foot.</p><p> </p><p>"Grace?"<br/><br/><br/></p><p>Annabeth nervously glares at the book, scraped her nails lightly along the name.</p><p> </p><p>"Have any relatives named Jeanette? Anyone?"<br/><br/><br/></p><p>Thalia shakes her head no.</p><p> </p><p>"Not that I remember, no. Maybe...she's just- just some stranger. There's such a thing as a coincidence, right? Annabeth?"<br/><br/><br/></p><p>"Oh yeah, true...that's right Thalia...coincidences." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth's heart aches for the picture at the back of this page.</p><p> </p><p>A pretty girl dressed in blue is kissing a man goodbye from out a train window, with her red-painted scrarred lips. </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"I still wait at the train station for you. I miss you I miss you I miss you-" </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Is everything alright, Thalia?"<br/><br/><br/></p><p>"That's- uh, yes." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"I walked you to this train station everyday at 7 o'clock. You sent me home with kiss prints. I still have one of your kiss-printed handkerchiefs, the one you embroidered for me. I still have letters covered in your kisses and your rose perfume. </p><p> </p><p>I remember your hands in my hair, I remember your long hair and your summery cotton dresses. </p><p> </p><p>I remember your dancing, it haunts me in my dreams and my nightmares and my waking thoughts.</p><p> </p><p>I'll never have dance with anyone else. I don't want another. Come back to me Rosie, please. I'm begging you. This town is empty without you."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Oh look, there's sheet music on this page."</p><p> </p><p>"Percy knows how to play the piano, doesn't he? Wanna call him up?"</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth flushes.</p><p> </p><p>"Sure Thals, sure." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"I can't live without you. Rosie, where are you? Where have you run away from me? I'm coming for you, I'm looking for you. Please don't vanish again, I can't take it." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Guess he knows how it feels."</p><p> </p><p>"I miss Jason too."</p><p> </p><p>"So do I." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"I feel luckier than any man. I found her, I found her and she's safe and she's alright and she's all mine.</p><p> </p><p>She's scared but she's happy to see me again. That's all that matters. She doesn't want to talk about what happened to her. That's alright. </p><p> </p><p>I know and care for only the most important thing.</p><p> </p><p>She said yes.</p><p> </p><p>She'll be my wife by the end of this year. This winter she's going to walk up to me in a white dress, and we'll be man and wife." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Well, loverboy here has better luck than us, for sure." </p><p> </p><p>"Never mentioned how he found her though..."</p><p> </p><p>"Can't blame him, she sounds traumatised." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"I'm a married man. This book is useless to me now. I got what I wanted, this is more than enough." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Percy stumbles in the door nearly an hour after they first read the passage. </p><p> </p><p>"Traffic," he says, and sets dow his keyboard on the floor where they're sitting. Thalia helps him plug in the wires and set it up. </p><p> </p><p>"What's this?" </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth says, pointing to the sheet music in the book. Percy looks it over critically for a moment, before laughing out loud.</p><p> </p><p>"This? It's the Dying Swan." </p><p> </p><p>"Oh, Tchaikovsky." </p><p> </p><p>"The one and only. Still want me to play it?"</p><p> </p><p>"Yeah...I think I'd like that." </p><p> </p><p>The room fills with the heart wrenching melody of Odette's death, and Annabeth can almost think of a beautiful dancer, spinning and twirling and tumbling like the dying swan queen. She can think of why he must've been so desperately in love with her.</p><p> </p><p>She looks at the the book, feels that picture burning through the page and into her mind. She can see this girl, in all her uncanny resemblance to a dear friend, can see her floaty and fluttery queenly dancing. Can see the crowds staring at her with rapt attention to her every movement. </p><p> </p><p>As the piece ends, Annabeth thinks of a dying queen before a crowd of thousands, thinks of a beauty lost to the world only to be found again after a desperate chase. Thinks of this girl on a music box, spinning for all eternity in her soft beauty.</p><p> </p><p>"No wonder he fell in love." she whispers, and Percy looks at her.</p><p> </p><p>"Who?" he asks, and it's as soft and quiet as the whisper it follows.</p><p> </p><p>"Him."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Amore, have you seen my jacket?" </p><p> </p><p>Jaylene frowns at Leo from across their bedroom. </p><p> </p><p>"More importantly, have <em>you </em>seen my old ballet box? You <em>know </em> I always look at my old pointe shoes before a performance."</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Annabeth startles when Percy ends up face-down on the countertop.</p><p> </p><p>"Remember Kym's celebration thing?" </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth does, in fact, remember Kym's 'celebration thing'.</p><p> </p><p>"Well, you've been roped into coming, hope you weren't planning on staying sober this weekend." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth raises an eyebrow, brushing Percy's overlong hair out of his eyes. </p><p> </p><p>"Who's driving then?" </p><p> </p><p>Percy gets up slightly, pointing at Thalia who's sitting in the living room. </p><p> </p><p>"Oh." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"So the green ones or the gold ones?"</p><p> </p><p>Percy barely looks up.</p><p> </p><p>"Uhh..the gold one." </p><p> </p><p>Kym scowls, stalking over to flick her brother's forehead in annoyance. Percy swats her hand away with an identical frown of his own, glaring up at her. She pinches the bridge of her nose impatiently, before looking up at the ceiling as if asking <em>god </em>for the gift of patience.</p><p> </p><p>"At least <em>pretend</em> to care, will you?"</p><p> </p><p>Percy feels slightly guilty at that. This was most certainly Kym's day, and it was a little unfair of him to be tamping the mood when it was meant to be an occasion to celebrate. Kym hadn't many friends, and was awfully lonely most of the time. Her marriage ending was a big part of her loneliness ending, and Percy lightens up a little.</p><p> </p><p>"I meant it, the gold ones look nice." </p><p> </p><p>Kym smiles to herself, a small, true smile, different from the pinched and terse smiles she fakes most of the time. This smile doesn't look out of place on Kym's face like her usual smiles do, and it's comforting.</p><p> </p><p>She picks up her pretty gold earrings and puts them in her ears, and swipes on some lipstick. </p><p> </p><p>She seems oddly melancholy, and Percy isn't sure why. He hears her sigh, and walks over to slump into her vanity chair after taking her hand.</p><p> </p><p>"Hey, what is it?" </p><p> </p><p>Kym sighs again, picking at her nails anxiously.</p><p> </p><p>"Well..."</p><p> </p><p>She opens up a little box that sits on her vanity, and Percy peers into it curiously when she hands it to him.</p><p> </p><p>There's a small silver chain in the box, along with a few charms. A pale blue bead, a miniature of a mermaid, a moonstone carved into a jellyfish, and a small shimmery ballet slipper. </p><p> </p><p>"I uh..I collected these over the years. Jason told me I should be proud of the progress I was making, and that whenever I felt like I'd made progress on getting out of my marriage, I should get myself something nice, to congratulate myself and commemorate it."</p><p> </p><p>Percy goes quiet.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh." </p><p> </p><p>Kym and Jason had an odd friendship, one built on constantly being pushed into other people's expectations of them. They'd been able to understand each other as a result, and had gotten on well for quite a few years despite their age gap. At any rate, Jason had always been a bit of an old soul.</p><p> </p><p>He was one of Kym's first close friends, and the first person she'd confided her troubles to in years. </p><p> </p><p>Percy may not have realised it, but the loss had hit Kym fiercely too. The little box full of charms seems to be the final nail in the coffin, so to speak. A little memory of days gone by, of long gone celebrations for Kym's little victories, of a duo taking a quick walk down to the old Asphodel pawn store to get Kym something nice. Those days are long gone now. </p><p> </p><p>Kym seems somber, to somber to celebrate.</p><p> </p><p>"I wanted him to come more than anyone. Having his sister there just isn't the same, Percy. I miss him too, you know." </p><p> </p><p>Percy sighs too, and turns to face Kym in the mirror. </p><p> </p><p>"I know, Kym. I know." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Thalia isn't looking forward to this at all. </p><p> </p><p>She'd never been one for drinking after her mother's alcoholism was found out, and as such she tended to steer clear of even a single sip of the stuff out of deep-rooted fear. Anyhow, she barely knows Kym. She's standing in as a piss-poor substitute for her brother, for a friend that had depended on him and confided to him. </p><p> </p><p>It <em>feels </em>wrong in a way she can't talk to anyone about.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth is slumped in the shotgun seat, fiddling with her phone and trying to read something off the screen. Thalia offhandedly thinks they both look rather nice today. Annabeth has a habit of just dressing businessy whenever they went out that Thalia barely tolerates. It's incredibly boring, and after years of breaking the habit, Thalia is more than satisfied with the results of her hard work.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth's curls have been pinned into a knot at the back of her head, tied back with a black bandanna trimmed with yellow flowers, and she's in an ochre crop top with black ripped jeans. Thalia is rather proud of having shoved an affinity for collars into Annabeth's dress sense, for she fears that otherwise she'd witness the same grey dress for every occasion they get invited to.</p><p> </p><p>The car ride is quiet, and Annabeth seems to be rifling through the diary so Thalia keeps the music off. The wind whistles in her ears and the ground rumbles under the car, and the world is eerily silent. Thalia hates it like nothing else. </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Halfway there, they get a call from Percy.</p><p> </p><p>"Hey uh, change of plans, we're not going to Bacchanalia tonight. Kym says she'd rather go to the pier and-" </p><p> </p><p>He's interrupted by the sound of someone tripping and falling over something in the background. Annabeth can <em>hear </em>him wince over the phone.</p><p> </p><p>"She's pretty tipsy already." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth shrugs at Thalia, before going right back to what she was doing before, much to Thalia's annoyance, if her tone is any indication (with Thalia it usually is). </p><p> </p><p>"Uh yeah, okay. Is parking free?"<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Percy goes on about where to park, where it's free and where it isn't, how far they'll have to walk, and Annabeth zones out. What she's dug up is, after all, <em>far</em> more interesting.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>30th May, Apollo</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"...I understand. Better than most people. It hurt me too. Maybe I should go check on Kym? No, that would just be cruel. To go see her after everything she and Jason went through, I mean. Maybe it'll be better for her if I go, lord alone knows May felt much better after Jason went for her sake. To think she still hasn't realised, I guess I'm not alone at all when it comes to being hung up on the d-"</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth taps her nails on her phone case.</p><p> </p><p>"Thals, can you pull over for a sec?"</p><p> </p><p>Thalia stares at her oddly for a moment before complying. Annabeth passes her the phone, and swallows the (expected) sigh from Thalia. </p><p> </p><p>"Why does he- Why's he have to insert himself into everyone's lives? Into everyone's business? Gods Annabeth, I just don't know anymore." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth sighs too. </p><p> </p><p>"Who's May?"</p><p> </p><p>Thalia looks at her strangely, before she goes - <em>click.</em> </p><p> </p><p>"Ah, must be another one of Jason's 'projects'. Kid knew the both of us were fucked up for life anyways, at least he tried to help other people." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth feels a clench in her thoughts, like she both knows and doesn't know something. It's a sting of shame that accompanies that feeling, nothing more and nothing less. </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"A-And guess what? I knew, he wanted the <em>besht</em> for meee-" </p><p> </p><p>By the time they arrive, Kym is sobbing into Percy's shoulder desperately.</p><p> </p><p>Thalia waves awkwardly, as does Annabeth. Neither are very good with comforting strangers, and Kym may as well be one. A stranger.</p><p> </p><p>A stranger they know far too much about.</p><p> </p><p>"A-and listen! Listen! He just...<em>hic</em>...he listened, when nobody would. Why isn't he here? I was only able to do it b-because he helped me, Percy-" </p><p> </p><p>She muffles her sob in her sleeves, long and floaty and bell-like as they are.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth almost cringes. It's not fair, is it. </p><p> </p><p>"That you? Thalia? D-Did Jason ever tell you about...<em>hic...</em>Luke's mama back home? Oh god, poor <em>May, </em>she doesn't even know, first Luke and then Jason, she's all alone." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth instinctually spins to face Thalia in something between shock and horror. Thalia only shrugs, and there is something undeniably <em>violent </em>in those deep, dark, blue eyes of hers. Something malevolent that puts the fear of god into Annabeth in a way that her churchgoing stepmother couldn't after a decade of trying. </p><p> </p><p>"What'd I tell you? Projects. Hopeless cases that were worse off than anyone else. They made him feel guilty. So he did something about them." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth's eyes dart back and forth between Percy's distraught half-sister, Percy's own stricken face, and Thalia's unstable gaze. </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“...the voices are getting louder now. Thalia’s going to tell her. Thalia’s going to tell her. What’ll I do if she tells? Nobody can know nobody can know nobody can know please please in father’s name don’t-” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Then all of a sudden, there is a - <em>click, </em>and there is calm. </p><p> </p><p>"Won't you h-help me string this together? I think I can wear it now." </p><p> </p><p>Gently, steadily, Annabeth strings on the little mermaid, Percy strings on the jellyfish, and Thalia strings on the bead. Kym fumbles with the last charm for a few moments (moments that feel like an eternity) until it's on. She reaches for Percy's hand and he holds it for her, and she clasps the bracelet around her slim wrist after a few missed tries. </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth doesn't think about May Castellan, or Luke, or even Jason.</p><p> </p><p>Tonight, it is just Percy, Kym, Thalia, and the beach.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaylene frowns at the mess in her bedroom. Surely they'd been cleaning it for half an hour at least? It was still a mess.</p><p> </p><p>"Amore, I love you, but what the hell is all this?"</p><p> </p><p>Jaylene's eyebrows hit her hairline. </p><p> </p><p>"Leo, I have never seen that box before in my life." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth hasn't been able to sleep since she got home with Thalia. Her bed creaks with her weight and the moaning wind outside the door cries and wails like a lost child. The trees rustle and the noises of the nighttime make her heart race. Still, there's nothing wrong. </p><p> </p><p>Right?</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth rolls off of her bed, walking out of her bedroom to see if Thalia was free or already asleep. As expected, she's sprawled out over the couch, the white noise of some or another show grinding away at the corners of her mind. </p><p> </p><p>"Thals?" comes the quiet whisper, and Thalia turns to face her in all her bleary glory.</p><p> </p><p>"Yeah, yeah, get in here already, don't just stand there." </p><p> </p><p>"Oh, okay." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth curls the throw blanket around herself, shuddering quietly at the noises still ringing out in the darkness of the night.</p><p> </p><p>"Can you...can you tell me about May?"<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>"Well. May...she's Luke's mother. You know Jason was gonna be a psychiatrist? I asked him to look out for May once, back when we were younger and Luke hadn't..." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth nods along, still feeling that familiar pang of fear that comes from hearing Luke's name.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>"I told you. He went looking for projects. Even after what happened with Luke, he insisted on taking care of Luke's mom, something or another about mental health and her deserving help after what Luke's dad did to her." </p><p> </p><p>Thalia stares off into the distance.</p><p> </p><p>"The whole business of helping people is...awfully lonely work, isn't it?"</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth forces a shrug and an indifferent response.</p><p> </p><p>"Go ask Nico, wasn't he dating that doctor guy from down south?"</p><p> </p><p>Thalia lets out a dry chuckle at that.</p><p> </p><p>"Do you remember May?" she asks.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth shakes her head no, but points at the office. The hallway is unlit, they have yet to get the sconces repaired. It seems to beckon them closer, with the dim light of the streetlights that filters in through the curtains. It paints a fog over that corner of the house, and despite her curiosity, Annabeth still clings to Thalia like a frightened child, the way she and Jason used to when they were very young and afraid of the dark.</p><p> </p><p>Thalia nudges the door open.</p><p> </p><p>Their old photo albums seem to have vanished.</p><p> </p><p>"W-What? I swear I put them away already."</p><p> </p><p>Thalia's expression hardens somehow, staring accusingly at Percy's keyboard lying on the floor, at the sheet music feathered over the keys, and then she goes - <em>click.</em></p><p> </p><p>"What's that?" cries Annabeth, gesturing vaguely at something massive and pale that lies on the chair. For a moment Thalia feels her heart stop, she thinks they're both about to be killed, about to die and be forgotten as two single women who were unfortunate victims, a statistic.</p><p> </p><p>Then the truth comes out when Percy wanders into the office after being awoken by their talk, switching the light on behind him as he comes.</p><p> </p><p>The massive pale pile is no living thing.</p><p> </p><p>It's a dress.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"How on earth did I lose an evening gown? It's bright blue for god's sake!"</p><p> </p><p>Jaylene frets, shoving aside her boxes and the mysterious ones that seem to pop up.</p><p> </p><p>They're supposed to be at the gala in two hours, and Leo's darling wife is still in her dressing gown and uprooting all her orderly decorations in an effort to find her gown in the mess. </p><p> </p><p>"Why not just cancel? You're already exhausted from dealing with all of <em>this,</em>" Leo gestures to the mess of boxes that seem to have appeared in their home out of thin air. "Not to mention you haven't dealt with any of those people in so long." </p><p> </p><p>"So what you're saying is I've lost my touch?"</p><p> </p><p>"What <em>I'm </em>saying is you should come here since you're undressed anyway, and I'll take your mind off of everything for an hour."</p><p> </p><p>Jaylene sighs fondly, holding out an arm so she can be hauled into the chaise.</p><p> </p><p>"An hour is a conservative estimate, yeah?"</p><p> </p><p>"With you? Always." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Whose is tha-that?" yawns Percy, pointing in his half-asleep way at the heap of tulle and chiffon that lays on their easy chair.</p><p> </p><p>"Som- Somebody's broken in or something, and it-" </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Click.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"Huh, I don't know."</p><p> </p><p>"Nice, isn't it? Looks expensive if you ask me." </p><p> </p><p>Thalia reaches out to smooth a hand over it.</p><p> </p><p>"Kinda nice, huh?"</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth can't stop herself from feeling a little sick to her stomach. She isn't sure why, but something feels off and terribly wrong.</p><p> </p><p>She almost wants to tell Percy and Thalia no, but just like always, she goes - <em>click.</em></p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"A letter?"</p><p> </p><p>"For you, madam. It's got your name on it." </p><p> </p><p>"Oh...I see. Thank you...?"</p><p> </p><p>"Ah, it's no trouble Jeanette, I work rather closely with your husband."</p><p> </p><p>"I see. Take care...Hermes." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Jeanette,</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>There's been a bit of an accident. The wrong set went through to them.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I need you to package something of yours and send it through, Hermes will take care of it for you. We can deal with the rest.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Apollo will be there with him to pick it up. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>It is absolutely imperative that you don't tell your husband.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I repeat: DO NOT TELL THANATOS.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Nothing our family does concerns them. I don't need Hades catching wind of this.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Mother</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>-</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Was there a box sitting there before? Annabeth could've sworn it was a dress-</p><p> </p><p>No, no. None of that. A box is a box is a box. It was a box, nothing more nothing less.</p><p> </p><p>"What's all this doing here?"</p><p> </p><p>Percy's voice cuts through the confusion.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh, I'm not sure actually. Should we open it?"</p><p> </p><p>Thalia stalks over with her boxcutter before Percy and Annabeth can even nod at each other.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh, it's just the ballet stuff. I told you Annabeth, stuff doesn't just pop up of nothing, does it? And look, here's the albums."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Leo leans over to flip on the lamp switch, and Jaylene only draws herself closer to him.</p><p> </p><p>"You're warm," she mumbles, face buried in his shoulder.</p><p> </p><p>"Yeah, no wonder," Leo teases back, before letting out a soft noise of shock.</p><p> </p><p>"Amore, isn't that your dress?"</p><p> </p><p>Jaylene rubs her eyes, sated and exhausted.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh, right. How'd we miss that?"</p><p> </p><p>"Dunno, maybe the same way we missed the gala."</p><p> </p><p>"Ok, that's quite enough from you. C'mere, let's go back to sleep, we can put my ballet box back after 7."</p><p> </p><p>Something nags at Jaylene even as she tucks herself closer to him.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Wasn't my box missing last week?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Not that it matters.</p><p> </p><p>It's probably just a sleepy delusion.</p><p> </p><p>As with all things, the sleep washes over her, and Jaylene goes - <em>click</em>.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Jeanette wrings her hands like an old woman sending her grandson off to war. It's been ages since she last spoke with her brother, but she still follows procedure.</p><p> </p><p>"Omine, placet."</p><p> </p><p>Both Apollo and Hermes hand her a shimmering gold coin.</p><p> </p><p>She exhales, unsure if she's relieved or scared.</p><p> </p><p>"C-Come in." </p><p> </p><p>She pours them both some tea, and draws her shawl tighter around herself.</p><p> </p><p>This was all to help mother, right?</p><p> </p><p>But she forgot. She forgot something important, and it was mother's fault.</p><p> </p><p>The mark on her arm stings. She'd hated the eagle on it for years, not knowing she'd hate the peacock more.</p><p> </p><p>"How goes the work?"</p><p> </p><p>"Well enough. They should be able to figure some things out for themselves now." </p><p> </p><p>Jaylene says nothing more. She can hear the massive fluttering of wings that indicates her husband's homecoming, and quickly shushes Apollo and Hermes before running out to greet him.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Diana stirs awake. The room smells like lavender, and the windows are open to let in the streaky light of dusk.</p><p> </p><p>There's a brush of peacock feathers against the window.</p><p> </p><p>She shudders.</p><p> </p><p>All is well.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 7: Extra Drabble</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This is too petty, even for you.”</p><p> </p><p>“No, it’s not, and I’ll even prove it-“</p><p> </p><p>“It was <em>one </em>time, on a quest no less, and he still thought I liked him-“</p><p> </p><p>“He had no business saying anything he did.”</p><p> </p><p>“He <em>is </em>a god, Leo. I think he’s going to say things as he pleases.”</p><p> </p><p>“Screw Thanatos and screw Eros. Is staying within the limits not even a concept for-“</p><p> </p><p>“Shh! We’re in the middle of Naples for goodness’ sake! Someone could hear you! We’re literally in the holy lands, so don’t you go dying on me.”</p><p> </p><p>“Still! You don’t just flirt with a guy’s fiancée in front of him!”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay, yeah, that was kinda dumb of him.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, so you agree with me?”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
“That and I guarantee Nico will be in silent hysterics over this excuse for Italian petnames.”</p><p> </p><p>“Serve him right for letting you and Frank out of his sights long enough that Thanatos and his <em>wingman </em>could try and hit on you once I got there.”</p><p> </p><p>“Stop, seriously. Someone’s gonna think we’re getting divorced at this rate.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Diana's eyes are empty of all the emotion that is usually in them. </p><p> </p><p>The room and its bright purple-violet wallpaper and peacock green drapery almost seem to burn her, and the shame stings and stings until it physically hurts her.</p><p> </p><p>Her feet push her to get up, to take a step, then another step, to walk to the windowsill. She slumps onto the bay window, feeling the crushed velvet under her arm as she sprawls out in exhaustion. The window is shoved open by her other hand, and the wind that manages to just barely get in swirls the wispiest parts of her hair.</p><p>There're noises outside.</p><p> </p><p>There's something wrong with those noises.</p><p> </p><p>Diana sits up for a moment, only to hear the frantic cry of a peacock somewhere close by. She hurries to slam the window shut. The last time they got in, Diana had cuts on her arms for weeks.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Lady-Wife." </p><p> </p><p>"Lord-Husband." </p><p> </p><p>Thanatos searches her face, and Jeanette has to clench her fists to keep from fidgeting her fingers nervously as she usually does.</p><p> </p><p>"What...What happened?" </p><p> </p><p>Jeanette nearly flinches at the intensity of his stare, but as always, she looks him in the eye and lies.</p><p> </p><p>"My brothers visited is all, you know how it gets difficult for me sometimes." </p><p> </p><p>"Ah, I see." </p><p> </p><p>Jeanette trembles, and Thanatos draws her shawl tighter around her shoulders, wrapping her in a hug with his massive wings. </p><p> </p><p>"You're alright then, darling?" </p><p><br/>
"Oh, yes, I am." </p><p> </p><p>Jeanette avoids his eyes, ducking her face into his neck and wrapping her arms about his shoulders.</p><p> </p><p>"Sh-Shall we head inside?"</p><p> </p><p>"Yes darling, let's." </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Well, besides creeping us out, I don't think this diary has any purpose." </p><p> </p><p>Percy looks up at Annabeth from where he's standing in her and Thalia's lowered living room floor, tying together the strings and putting in the tacks on the photographs they have on the cork board. Annabeth throws it on the ground with a sense of finality and disgust.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth would never have desecrated a book like that before. Now she's convinced she's being haunted by the reality that-</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Jeanette walks into her weaving room and locks the door behind her before she falls to her knees to cry.</p><p> </p><p>She can see the branding on her arm burn with a warm light, and the peacock that mars her forearm seems to stare back at her accusingly.</p><p> </p><p>Liar. Liar. Filthy liar. You've learned nothing. You're making the mistakes of your parents, you're  listening to them even if you know they're wrong. Your marriage is doomed to fail. Just like your parents. You're a horrible wife.</p><p> </p><p>Jeanette only jolts from her sobbing and shock when she sees the reddish-orange mess on her clothes. </p><p> </p><p>She's scratched lines down her brand so deep that she's drawn blood. The sickly gold light tinges the blood orange, a bright, horrendous shade that seems strangely familiar. It makes her uncomfortable. It stings. It hurts and there is no one to listen to her worries.</p><p> </p><p>She peeks over the back door peephole to see if there was anyone to see her. Satisfied at the lack of witnesses, she darts to the river in the back of the garden to wash her wounds, hissing in pain slightly and wrapping her shawl into a makeshift bandage. She runs right back inside afterward, and begins spinning the wool for a new toga. Her hands shake at the soft remainders of the light faintly glow from beneath her shawl. Jeanette just wills herself to ignore it.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Ahh, get a load of this." </p><p> </p><p>Percy and Annabeth look at Thalia from their spot on the couch. </p><p> </p><p>"We got another photo on our hands. A clue too, maybe." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth frowns, and looks at her hands for a moment before looking back at Thalia. </p><p> </p><p>"What? I went through everything in that book though?"</p><p> </p><p>Percy looks at the book suspiciously before conspiratorially whispering to her, "That's the thing. Whenever I read it seems like there's more new pages." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth crosses her arms. She can feel a chill go through her bones, and says dryly, "I think I could use those gloves right about now." </p><p> </p><p>Thalia makes a face, and says offhandedly as she flips through the pages, "Jason never did go climbing or anything like that. Most he did was that one year he went snowboarding with Frank." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth rouses from her hazy mind suddenly, and sits up before racing to her room, feeling her pulse climb.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>There's something wrong with it...climbing gloves.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I don't know what's wrong.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I can't put my finger on it.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Jason never did go climbing.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Those gloves aren't-</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Percy and Thalia stare at the empty space she leaves behind before simply going on with their work.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth rounds the corner on the staircase to run into the office, pulling the drawers open with shaky hands. The gloves sit innocently in front of her, and she stares at them with a burning, piercing gaze. She gingerly picks them up, staring at them from every angel conceivable. They're a generic pair, something normally bought off the rack for a trip with friends. Not something effortful or personalised. They were cheap, no doubt. A simple search proves that. They were practically throwaways.</p><p> </p><p>These gloves aren't Jason's. They <em>never belonged</em> <em>to him</em>.</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth almost just wishes he were here to tell them what happened...what went wrong.</p><p> </p><p>She looks at the rack where Thalia keeps all of Jason's things, as if it'll summon him. Annabeth hangs her head with her newly gleaned information, and shoves the shimmering gold coin into her pocket. She storms off back downstairs, having never noticed the shadowed blond figure pressed up against the window behind her, staring at the coin with unblinking focus. More's the pity.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"Lying by omission is still a lie, is it not?"</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Apollo's voice is muffled by the door, and Diana is too exhausted to crawl to the door as she usually does to eavesdrop. Instead she lives miserably in bed, feeling the peacocks and their horrid glassy eyes staring at her through the windows and walls, through her skin and into her soul.</p><p> </p><p>She can hear a scream, a sound loud enough that it pours in through the doors either way. It's followed by a horrible and familiar sound, a slap. A loud, painful sounding one.</p><p> </p><p>The footsteps get fainter and fainter, and Diana assumes they are gone now. The sound of her doorknob turning isn't even preceded by a knock. Nobody has bothered to ask, and so Diana leaves the door unlocked anyway. Her half sister walks in with a bucket of water at her hip, and a cloth in the other.</p><p> </p><p>"You're burning up. Just sit, your fever will only get worse if you start fussing." </p><p> </p><p>The marks on her arms - the wounds from the peacocks pecking her - burn with pain as the water runs over them.</p><p> </p><p>Diana, wisely, keeps her mouth shut.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Don't you have regrets, Diana?"</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Don't you feel like this is your fault, Thalia?"</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Quite the choice you've made. Quite the sacrifice. Are you regretting it yet, Diana?"</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Your own brother Thalia, the one you fought for in court and <em>lived</em> for all your life, and you don't even know what happened to him?"</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"Do-"</p><p> </p><p>"-it-"</p><p> </p><p>"-for-"</p><p> </p><p>"-him."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>The voices are louder now, she hears them more often. They tell her all sorts of things.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>He died because I wasn't there that night. The police found his body lying in the woods, alone. He was two. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>He died in a surfing accident. He was out with Piper, and Apollo did something stupid, he tried to help and got caught in a rip current.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>He killed himself. I ran, but I left him behind. What did I think would happen? He was so young, it wasn't fair.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Caliigula killed him. He gave his life for his friends and his people, he went willingly knowing that he'd die.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>What brother? He never even got to take his first breath. Mom wouldn't stop drinking for anyone. He was stillborn.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Thalia sits up, shaking and unable to sleep. The windows let in strange shadows, the sort Jason had been afraid of as a child. Thalia shudders, getting up to check the locks on all the windows. She thinks she can see an odd blond shadow out of the corner of her eye. She thinks nothing of it. She must be dreaming, thinking of her brother while he was already taken from her.</p><p> </p><p>The clock tells her it's late, unbearably late, actually. It's no matter. Thalia curls up in her sheets and feels her eyes grow heavy with sleep and the nightmares of her brother's death. She falls into Morpheus's grip, too exhausted to hear the faint scratching at her window. Just under the windowsill, something has been carved in, hidden by the bushes that surround the house.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>2343</em>
</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"You're with child, aren't you? That- That's why you're doing this, isn't it?"</p><p> </p><p>Jeannette's spine seems to straighten as far as it will go, and Diana knows she's right on target.</p><p> </p><p>"I may be a mortal <em>now</em>, sister, but I have not lost the touch that comes with being a goddess of childbirth. I helped my own mother birth Apollo, didn't I?"</p><p> </p><p>Jeanette says nothing, simply working to dress Diana's wounds that much faster. The moment she's done, she gets up, putting the bandages aside and throwing one arm over her abdomen protectively. The other reaches for a rag, and the ring on it glints in the dusky early evening light. Diana sighs, watching as she leaves to room to get Diana her meal.</p><p> </p><p>Diana falls onto her back, sinking into the bed and splaying her arms and legs like a child.</p><p> </p><p>"Curse you, stepmother. Curse you for forcing this girl - who you call your <em>own</em> - to marry an immortal and bear him his child. Curse you for making her forget that which was already hers. What you've taken from her is unforgivable. She'd be so much happier, and a thousand times safer, if only you'd let her stay with Va-" </p><p> </p><p>Jeanette knocks this time, and Diana cuts off her own whispering ramblings to focus on the meal she's been given once Jeanette comes in the door.</p><p> </p><p>"Take care of yourself."</p><p> </p><p>Jeanette flinches at Diana's soft touch on her wrist, and silently clears the empty plate and the rag. Her eyes are downcast and her exhaustion is clear for the eye to see.</p><p> </p><p>Diana just can't figure out why. </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"H-Hey guys?"</p><p> </p><p>Percy gestures awkwardly at the page he's opened.</p><p> </p><p>"There's a log here, if that's any help." </p><p> </p><p>Annabeth calls from the kitchen, asking him to read it aloud, and he does.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Log 11.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>I'm feeling a little less sick than I did last week. I think the morning sickness is finally starting to ease up. I feel dizzy though, terribly dizzy.</p><p> </p><p>I feel hungrier as well, and I have such a burning wish for some homemade fudge and brownies now. The baby is a whole inch long now, and I don't really look all that pregnant. Well. It has only been 3 months. My ankles are starting to swell, and I feel so much more tired now than I used to. But I'm a good wife and I do what I must to keep the house running, even if I have to play nursemaid to my sister.</p><p> </p><p>I'm scared. </p><p> </p><p>Last time I only made it to 7 weeks. Granted, it's been nearly twice as long this time, but I'm still scared.</p><p> </p><p>Mother told me she'd make sure it wouldn't happen again if I listened to her and did exactly as she told me, but I just don't know. Was it my fault? Did my body do it? Because of what...happened before?</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>Annabeth glances at the page sadly, running a hand over the tearstains at the bottom of the page.</p><p> </p><p>"Poor thing. She's already miscarried once and they're still making her do all this stuff even though she's tired?"</p><p> </p><p>Percy's statement makes Thalia look up, and she frowns in disappointment at the passage.</p><p> </p><p>"All this shit about listening to your mother. She should just listen to her doctor."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>The peacocks cry out, loud and shrieky and miserable. </p><p> </p><p>Jaylene loops her arm through with Leo's, pointing into the enclosure where they're sitting to gesture at one of the birds that has opened its tail fan.</p><p> </p><p>Leo smiles at her familiar excitement, excitement that never seems to dull.</p><p> </p><p>They step off the ride that takes one through the aviary, and walk arm in arm to one of the lawns by the lazing tigers. Jaylene lays down their picnic blanket, and pats the ground next to her invitingly. Leo settles in for a quiet lunch in this hustling, busy little zoo, full of families and jobless teenagers roaming every inch of it.</p><p> </p><p>Jaylene eats her ice-cream contentedly, pulling on her hat so the shadow from the brim covers her nose. There's a spray of freckles there now, from all the years that they've done things like this together in the summer. She laces the fingers of her free hand with Leo's, letting him admire how their joined hands look with the rings shining off of them in the sunshine. Jaylene looks at him with mischief in her eyes, and smears a bit of her ice-cream on his mouth so she can kiss it off of him.</p><p> </p><p>The world is warm and strawberry-tinted with pretty pink joy, like the miniature bouquets that pattern Jaylene's peasant top, leaving her shoulders bare to bask in the soft sunlight and light touches that fill her life with laughter.</p><p> </p><p>Jaylene pulls back to breathe and look over Leo's shoulder at the families running through the park, with the sort of fondness for one's fellow human beings that only the happiest people have.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p>"I-"</p><p> </p><p>"-love-"</p><p> </p><p>"-you."</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>lemme k if you feel like the rating needs to go up from T to M, I'm not quite sure if I should do that or not so any opinions would be helpful</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em> 911.  What’s your emergency?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Help!-  is this-</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Hello?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Please send someone, please, I think I'm gonna die.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I need you to take a deep breath and explain, sweetie. What's happened? Where are you? Are you alone?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I'm- I'm in the forest and-</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>And?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Momma left me here by myself. But she- she said that it was coming for me! That it was gonna kill me!</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>What's gonna kill you?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>The- The thing daddy's wife was sending. It's gonna kill me. Momma left me here so it wouldn't kill her.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Sweetie what's your name?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>It's Jennie.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Where are you right now? Is there anything nearby that you can describe for me?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I'm just in the woods. There's some big rocks here, and- and Momma's car too. She left her phone so I called for help, but I think I'm gonna die. Please, do something.</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>What's your Momma's car look like? We'll try and find you, okay?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>It's big and red, kinda dirty, one of the windows-</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Hello? Jennie? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>(muffled screaming)</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Jennie! </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>(the sound of shattering glass)</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Hello? Jennie!</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>(growling and snarls, slowly getting fainter. footsteps.)</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Hello? Is this the police?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Yeah- Yeah son it is, what happened?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Do something please, I think my sister's dead! Oh my god, I'm gonna throw up.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>What? What happened to her?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Please, come quick, please please-</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>(the operator tries to ask again. the line goes dead.)</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Thalia stirs her coffee with a shudder, unable to shake the sinking feeling that something horrible has happened.</p><p> </p><p>It's probably nothing.</p><p> </p><p>Thalia has gotten paranoid with age and time.</p><p> </p><p>The wind whistles in through the slight gap left in her bedroom window.</p><p> </p><p>It's quite the blessing that Thalia can't see outside of it.</p><p> </p><p>Right underneath the windowsill is a great truth that she doesn't know.</p><p> </p><p>An innocent pair of-</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>"-gloves. About 4 inches from the body."</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Jeanette crosses her arms, as if feeling a chill. Her husband looks over at her from the corner of the porch where he stands, raising an eyebrow by way of a question.</p><p> </p><p>He knows nothing of his wife's troubles, and so she keeps her secrets.</p><p> </p><p>Jeanette's arm is splayed over her stomach protectively, as usual. Her eyes dart to the newspaper her brother had brought her that morning.</p><p> </p><p>"Some psychopath shot up a school. Gods, I can't even imagine..." </p><p> </p><p>"All untimely death is painful, particularly when children are the victims." </p><p> </p><p>Jeanette glowers at her husband once his unasked wisdom is spoken.</p><p> </p><p>"A lot <em>you'd </em>know about that." </p><p> </p><p>"Hmm?"<br/><br/></p><p>"Nothing dear. Nothing."</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For Parker and for Ash, both wonderful enough to play along with my creepy fic, and for being my fandom besties &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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